


A Promise to Keep

by SwoodMaxProductions



Series: The Triforce Trio AU [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Abusive Parents, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Breath of the Wild Sequel Trailer, Calamity Ganon - Freeform, Canonical Character Death, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Five-year-old Zelda being a cinnamon roll, Gen, Good!Ganondorf, Hurt/Comfort, King Rhoam is a dick, Rescue, breath of the wild - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 21:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19912849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SwoodMaxProductions/pseuds/SwoodMaxProductions
Summary: Why are Zelda and Link underground in the Breath of the Wild sequel trailer?To keep a promise Zelda made when she was five years old.





	A Promise to Keep

**Author's Note:**

> Lord help me I’m back on my bullshit again.
> 
> Pardon the timeskips, but I just had to write this. I had to. It was too adorable.

Someone was breathing under the floor. She’d told the guards, but they didn’t listen. Nobody listened to her. Being five stunk. It was really scary at first, but then she thought about it, and it sounded kinda like when she jumped onto her Daddy’s lap too hard and he made that wheezy sound. Whoever he was (she thought it sounded like a he), he sounded like something was hurting him.

So at night, when everybody was asleep, little Princess Zelda followed the sound down to the tunnels in the library. Shayle, the Goron foreman, snored really loud, so she could do a really good job sneaking around down there.

The breathing was coming from one of Mummy’s resin eaters. Zelda didn’t know why they were called that, since they were made of metal and glowy jewel things so they didn’t even have a mouth to eat any resins with, whatever resins were. Mummy said that resin eaters could listen to things sometimes. Was it listening to a person?

“H.. er, hello?” Zelda whispered into the device.

The breathing changed. 

“Huh— Y… You can hear me…?”

“Yes… are you alright? Who are you?”

The voice on the other end was silent for a while. 

“I’m… uh, I’m… my name is Ganondorf… who are you…?”

“My name’s Zelda. Er, it’s a, um, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Daddy was always getting upset if she didn’t use her good manners…

“Zelda…! That’s… a great name.”

“Are you under the castle?”

“...Yes.”

“Are you alright? Do you need help? How’d you get down there?”

The voice went silent again.

“Well… a long, LONG time ago… I helped fight a monster. A huge monster. The biggest... angriest monster in the world. But… it was so angry, that… it wouldn’t die. It… it tried… to turn me into a monster, too… So I have to be down here… so it can’t escape…”

Zelda was stunned. Was this the thing everyone was talking about? The Calamity? 

“Is… is the monster what’s hurting you…?”

“...Yes…”

“That’s awful…!”

“It is,” sighed Ganondorf, “It truly is…”

~~~

Every so often, Zelda would sneak down to the special resin eater to talk to Ganondorf. He was really nice, even though he seemed like he was in a lot of pain. They told each other a lot of stories. She would bring him books from the library and read them to the resin eater so he could hear.

“When I get big,” she told him, “I’ll come down there and save you. I promise.”

“I… I’d like that very much...” Ganondorf said.

She would rescue him one day. Because that’s what friends did. And they were friends.

At least, until Daddy found out.

He was furious. He put locks on her room so she couldn’t get out. She was miserable. Daddy didn’t like anything she did. He was always so mad at her. And she missed Ganondorf. She could still hear him breathing sometimes, and she cried, because he was all alone down there.

~~~

“Rhoam, you can’t be serious. He’s our best hope. And besides, he’s TRAPPED down there! He’s been trapped for ten thousand years!”

“Because he is the Calamity, darling, he is our ENEMY!”

“He is the only reason the Calamity hasn’t KILLED us!”

“And how do you know that?!”

“How do YOU? I swear, as long as I still draw breath, the excavation will remain!”

“Zelda…”

“Rhoam. Calamity Ganon is TORTURING him.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with that Urbosa woman…”

~~~

Zelda sighed. The tunnels had been abandoned years ago. After her mother passed, her father had ordered the digging to be halted. The ten-year-old had finally found the spot, but her mother’s resonators had been removed. 

“Ganondorf?”

Nothing. Not even his labored breathing. 

Because the resonator was gone.

Just like Mum.

~~~

Malice. It burned her skin, her flesh, her soul. Zelda didn’t know how many years it had been. But as long as she kept Calamity Ganon bound to the castle, Hyrule was safe. LINK was safe.

“...da… Zel.. da… Zelda...”

She would recognize that voice anywhere…

~~~

“Princess? Where are you and Link going?”

“Paya! Oh, hello! We were just leaving for the expedition beneath the castle.”

Their vast beast of burden snuffled, as if in agreement.

“With… resonators? And Malice wards? ...Your Highness, you don’t need to worry anymore. Everyone is safe!”

Zelda looked back at Paya as the great beast began advancing to the excavation site.

“Not everyone,” she said.

She had a promise to keep.

**Author's Note:**

> That’s right, that asshole Rhoam could have prevented the Great Calamity by respecting his dead wife’s wishes! BASTARD.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this!


End file.
